Hey all I'm back! After a brief hiatus to taking care of life I have some free time to write some of my thoughts. So what's new? Well I have been collecting comics like crazy, (I'll be talking about that in a little bit) playing some games and really enjoying youtube and netflix.

Comics
Well since batman #17 the finale of the "death of the family" story arc I was hooked I started to buy comics weekly

After work Friday I wanted to stop at a comic shop to pick up the new Batman #17. The place I went to was called One Stop Comics, if you are ever in Chicago check it out. What was unique was the shop owner was interesting and engaging. I was a first timer at the store and he showed me around and made conversation with me. He asked me how I got into comics and why I was stopping by today. I explained that I wanted to pick up the newest issue of Batman because I had heard it was a great end to a story arc. I also told him that I had stopped collecting comics for a while and was looking back into it. Anyway he was a great salesman and overall that is the experience that I enjoyed and I will be going back.

What was awesome was that my girlfriend actually liked the shop and wanted to come back too. At first she was just bored as she later explained that she felt like a fish out of water but because the owner of the store was nice and engaging he had made conversation with her and gave her some back story on some of the latest x-men titles that she was looking at.

The reason I am blogging about this is for a couple of reason

1st. After we left I was amazed at the customer service of One Stop Comics. I thought they did a great job of keeping the customer happy and engaged, not only did I buy Batman #17 but I also spend $30 more on new books and some of the other issues of the "Death of the Family" story arc.

2nd. My Girlfriend had a great experience there and she bought some books as well. Why I think this is great is that we are always looking for new hobbies to do together. I didn't think she would be interested as she was and overall she is interested in going back.

3rd Yesterday we hit a couple of different comic shops around my neighborhood in the south suburbs of Chicago, it was a horrible experience. The sales clerks didn't greet us or even talk to us at all. I normally greet people when I enter a store because I was thought this crazy little things called manners as a child. Anyway both comic store just had terrible customer service and overall I will not be returning.

I noticed the difference between the three stores and the customer service of One Stop Comics really made me want to come back and buy more on a regular comics. When I was collected comics in the 90's I really didn't noticed if some of the clerks were friendly or not. I just wanted what comic I was there for and that was it. Now its pretty important to me the experience and the friendliness of the staff that works at the places that I shop at. I don't need my ass kissed but I would like to know that my business is important to them. Anyway these are some thoughts. How important is customer service to you?

Looking back at final fantasy 6, I didn't fully appreciate it until much later when it was released on Playstation. The first time I experienced it was back on Super Nintendo when my friend bought it. He had to trade in to most of his game collection to Funco Land to get the game but I remember him telling me it was worth it. What really caught my eye was the vast number of characters and they had a different ability that was unique to the character. My favorite back then was Shadow, mainly because he was a ninja that had a dog and Sabin. Sabin had reminded me of Guile from Street Fighter 2 and since I was a huge fan of Street Fighter that he became a favorite. I felt its was unfortunate that the first time I played I missed the story due it being my friends game and I didn't have a SNES.

Since music is a big part of my experiences, saying this game had great music is an understatement. From the title screen even before you press start the title music lets you know this game isn't fucking around. Later on the Playstation version they have this FMV scene that feature Terra's theme and what happens before the game starts. In my opinion its cool but its not needed. I prefer the thunder background with the title and the title theme better. Its simple and effective to set the stage for the opening of the game. To be honest a lot of the music to this game are really well done, it adds to the experience of the story and for me reminds me of simpler times.Finally I have to mention the boss battle theme and Terra's theme are two of my favorites from the final fantasy series. I kinda felt these two songs remind me of the overall experience of final fantasy. The boss battle theme or Decisive Battle always pumped me up to engage the boss but had this feeling like you had to do it, you had to push through and fight. Terra's theme is different, its a sad song that inspires hope. I kinda felt that was one of the main themes of final fantasy is that even though shit was fucked up that there was hope to find a way through it all. Anyway thats just ones man's opinion.

Since I never played final fantasy 4 (until recently) this was also the first time I seen the summons in the final fantasy series. It was just awesome seeing these creatures back in the days just fuck shit up. Ultima was another thing that stood out, I remember my friend would get pissed at me because when I would help him level up to 99, I would always use Ultima to kill anything and waste all his mp.

It was my first entry in the final fantasy series and I think it is my favorite. Another thing I would like to mention about the style is the sprites I always thought that for sprites they sure had a lot of animation.

I eventually got to play through this game when a good friend of mine lent it to me on Playstation. It brought it a lot of the memories back and I enjoyed it fully. When it was released for download on the PSN it was the first final fantasy I bought before 7. I loved it that much. Recently I played through 7 before I got to 6 which makes me a little sad but I had something to prove in 7(Yeah I'm looking at you Ruby and Emerald) .Its on the list of games that I am planning to play through but I wanted a chance to play through the other final fantasy games before I replay it.

Overall if you haven't played it, give it a shot. Its an epic game that on any final fantasy fans list makes the top 5 easy.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have thought about it .

Stay classy people

Mike

Next up I want to talk about one of the best RPGs on the Super Nintendo - Chrono Trigger.

I know that I am not old by any stretch of the imagination, but at times when a person's life changes its nice to look back at what life was like at a simpler time.

During my middle school days which was during the genesis/super nintendo days, I would visit my friends house after school mainly because it was across the street from the school. I would sit and watch him play a different type of game that I have never seen before, it was the role playing game. I had a sega genesis and mainly played fighting games and platformers, so this was new for me.

I remember fondly Secret of Mana and the first time I had heard the opening theme, this was the first game I had played and overall loved. This game was a blast, it was a action rpg that a second player could join in and co-op the hell out of. You could level up a series of different weapons and use different attacks, whats more is that you could also charge up these weapons for a flashy attack based on your level of usage. Thinking back the game was ahead of its time in terms of gameplay mechanics. The story was okay from what I remember but what stood out was the gameplay, the music and the flying dragon...let me explain. halfway through the game you find a dragon that you help and end up using him as transportation across the world map, it was awesome It reminded me of the dragon dog from the neverending story, one of my favorite movies as a kid.

I used to join my buddy leveling up his characters weapons and magic, since I didn't own a SNES this was all the I got. At the time I didn't know what role playing games the genesis had and honestly I didn't care. We spent afternoons playing and sometimes I would just watch and enjoy the game. Honestly it was just a really fun time that I have fond memories of.

One last thing I would like to note was the music of the game was fantastic, the boss battle theme was one of the best tracks that made you feel like you needed to beat some ass even though it seemed impossible. Also there was a sad track that really added to the events taking place.I think that overall Secret of Mana helped me appreciate other aspects of games that were overlooked by me. It helped pave the way for many of the other titles I would play.

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog, this is something that I have wanted to do for a while but I never managed to do until today. Well let me share a little bit about myself and why I wanted to do this in the first place. My name is Michael and I am 31, live in a suburb of Burbank and I am a gamer. Or at least I used to be, being in my early 30's I have noticed some changes that have left me thinking. Having graduated from college and working full time I have very little time free time, throw in that I have a wonderful girlfriend that isn't a gamer. plus I cleaning my apartment and spending time with my family and I am left with little to no time to actually enjoy playing video games.

But this isn't a bad thing...

Dividing my time equally has left me with only spending maybe 10 hours a week including weekends. SO this means that I only have time to choose one title and enjoy it.

As of late I have been playing older RPGs, so for my next post I am going to rehash some of my oldest memories that introduced me into RPGs. One of the genres that I enjoy the most.